Search watoday:

Search in:

Castaway's 16 months adrift on Pacific

Islanders on the remote Pacific atoll of Ebon do not see much passing sea traffic so when a battered fibreglass boat floated on to their reef, they were understandably curious.

To their amazement, an emaciated man, with long straggly beard and hair, dressed only in torn underpants, his skin weather-beaten from sun and salt, was inside the vessel, along with a turtle.

He had a remarkable story to tell, saying that he had survived 16 months adrift on the Pacific, eating turtles, birds and fish that he caught with his hands and drinking turtle blood and rainwater.

It is a story reminiscent of the Tom Hanks film Cast Away. And if details are confirmed, it is believed he will claim the record for surviving the longest time adrift after floating more than 8,000 miles from Mexico.

Advertisement

The details are still sketchy, not least as the man speaks only Spanish and there is only one telephone and no internet connection on the atoll, the southern-most outpost of the Marshall Islands.

He has communicated that his name is Jose Ivan and that he left Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion who died at sea several months ago. His story was in turn relayed to the world by Ola Fjelstad, a Norwegian anthropology student conducting research on the atoll, who spoke by telephone to a news agency.

"His condition isn't good, but he's getting better," Mr Fjeldstad said. "The boat is really scratched up and looks like it has been in the water for a long time."

Mr Ivan indicated that he survived by eating turtles, birds and fish caught by hand as there was no fishing gear on board. He drank turtle blood when there was no rain.

The men who found him took him to the main island on the atoll to meet Ione de Brum, the mayor, who used the single phone to call foreign officials in Majuro, the Marshall's capital.

The castaway's voyage is not over yet. The government airline has only one plane that can land at Ebon but that aircraft is out of service for maintenance and not expected to be available before Tuesday. Officials may instead send a boat to pick him up and bring him to Majuro, from where there are international air connections.

"He's staying at the local council house and a family is feeding him," said Mr Fjeldstad. "We've been giving him a lot of water, and he's gaining strength."

Jose Ivan was given a basic health check and was found to have low blood pressure, but he is walking slowly with the assistance of islanders and does not appear to have any life-threatening illness.

Home to fewer than 1,000 people, Ebon is a coral atoll of 22 islands, with a land mass of just 2.2 square miles and a highest elevation of nine feet, strung around a deep lagoon. It is one of 24 atolls that make up the Marshall Islands, which have a population of about 60,000.

Mr Ivan's boat is a 24ft fibreglass vessel with propeller-less engines. Such craft are capable of circumnavigating the globe, although he clearly had no such plans when he set off.

It is not the only epic story of survival on the Pacific. In 1992, two fishermen from Kiribati were at sea for 177 days before they landed in Samoa.

In 2006, three Mexicans were found in a vessel near the Marshalls, nine months after setting out to catch shark. They survived on rainwater, raw fish and seabirds, their hopes buoyed by reading the Bible.